A café popular with people on an industrial estate is on sale after one of the owners suffered a stroke.
Angela Saengkaew and Sarah Bower have run The Hideaway Café since 2020 but are now selling the business after Angela suffered a stroke.
The business was bought by the two friends who first met while working as chefs, just three weeks before the coronavirus pandemic started.
The Hideaway Café was forced to operate as a takeaway when it opened again and finally as a café again in December 2020 but with screens.
Angela said: “It was like starting all over again.
“It was a thriving café but the reason we are selling is because of my ill health, I cannot carry on.
“I had a stroke and so it was the decision behind it, I am fully recovered but it is a lot harder at work than when we first started.”
The friends will continue to work until a buyer has taken over the café, but they will miss all their loyal customers.
Angela said: “We are on an industrial estate so the main customers are people there which is large but we also have Just Eat and Deliveroo.
“I will miss everyone and the job immensely.
“The best thing has been getting into the community and the people on the estate and the building that we are in because we bought it when Covid hit, and they were so nice in supporting us and telling people about us so we get more customers.
“So it’s a community on this estate.
“Sarah and I will be sad to not see our regular customers as we have made some good friends.”
Angela and Sarah said the experience had been ‘challenging’ at times especially as the cost-of-living crisis hit the UK.
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Angela said: “It’s been challenging sometimes but gone from strength to strength but saw a little of downturn when the cost-of-living crisis hit because people stopped spending money, but that seems to have passed and it’s really busy again.
“We worked together as chefs and then decided after working long hours that we’d like to do it for ourselves instead of for somebody else and so that’s how we came to work together.”
Sarah will go back to being a chef while Angela is unsure what she will do next.
Open at 7.30am serving breakfast and have a large menu with paninis, wraps, rice dishes, salads and sandwiches.
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